The Morphology of Cosmobia 4"3'J 



graphical lists^ I wish in this place to briefly review certain of the most 

 recent works which are of especial interest in the present connection. 

 Of these I may select for especial mention the exhaustive text-book of 

 E. ScHWALBE, the recent descriptive papers of Mall and Kaestner, and 

 the experimental ones of Spemann and Stockaed. I will also mention 

 the work of two authors with similar views, Tornier and Tarnani, as 

 representing a vigorous opposition to the opinions expressed in this paper. 



The great work of Schwalbe..^^ of which two parts have already 

 appeared, with a third promised, will form the standard text-book on 

 the subject for many years to come. In this connection I may especially 

 mention his full treatment of Janus monsters in the second volume, with 

 a good discussion of the anatomy and the various geometrical relation- 

 ships. Following the traditions he makes no distinction between orderly 

 and deformed beings and is consequently somewhat embarrassed in 

 framing a definition of a monster, since he endeavors to include in one 

 conception things which were never intended to be considered together. 

 His definition is as follows : — "Missbildung ist eine wahrend der fotalen 

 Entwickelung zu Stande gekommene, also angeborene, Yeranderung 

 der Morphologie eines oder mehrerer Organe oder Organsysteme oder des 

 ganzen Korpers, welche ausserhalb der Variationsbreite der Species 

 gelegen ist." 



This is an excellent definition and defines exactly the usual idea of a 

 monstrosity. It is a departure from the usual order of things, but there 

 is no suggestion of a distinction between a monster that develops from 

 the beginning in an orderly though unusual way and one that becomes 

 secondarily misshapen and distorted through a defect in some system of 

 functional importance or through a mechanical hindrance or direct 

 injury; in other words between a Cosmobion and a deformity. On the 

 other hand great weight is laid upon the event of birth as a point abso- 

 lutely separating a monster from other forms of deformation. "Eine 

 Missbildung muss angeboren sein." This he illustrates by a fetal ampu- 

 tation as compared with one performed by the surgeon after birth; the 

 one is a monster, the other not. 



In these two points, the classing together of all congenital abnor- 

 malities and the making of a sharp distinction between intra-uterine 



"ScHWALBE. E. Die Morphologie der Missbildungen des Menschen und der 

 Tiere. Ite Tell, Allgemeine Missbildungslehre, 230 pp., 1906. 2te Tell, Die 

 Doppelbildungen. 410 pp., 1907. 3te Teil, Die Einzelmissbildungen (has not 

 yet appeared). Published by Fisher, Jena. 



